Vietnamese, Chinese leaders talk on bilateral ties

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-20 10:58

HANOI -- Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with visiting Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo respectively and discussed bilateral relations here on Thursday.

During their meetings, the Vietnamese leaders spoke highly of the outcome of the third meeting of the China-Vietnam steering committee on cooperation, which was held earlier on Thursday.

They said the Vietnamse side would like to work together with the Chinese side to implement the consensus reached at the meeting and enhance pragmatic bilateral cooperation in all kinds of areas.

Vietnam would like to work with China to properly deal with and resolve the maritime issue with the spirit of comrade and brother bond, mutual respect and friendly negotiation, said the Vietnamese leaders at the meetings.

They said that the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vietnamese government and Vietnamese people attach great importance to developing relations with China. Vietnam would like to join hands with China to advance the bilateral comprehensive cooperative partnership and develop the bilateral friendly cooperation cause.

Dai said China-Vietnam relations are now at a new stage of comprehensive development. The outcomes of bilateral ties were fruitful last year, he said. China and Vietnam completed the work of land border demarcation and erecting border markers. It indicated that the two issues left from history including land border and Beibu Gulf have been completely resolved, said Dai.

Despite the world financial crisis, last year the bilateral trade exceeded $20 billion and China, for the fifth consecutive year, became Vietnam's largest trade partner, said Dai.

Dai said China regards Vietnam as an important cooperative partner and always looks at bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.

Dai said that next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Vietnam diplomatic relations. The two sides could take this opportunity and plan a variety of activities to promote bilateral cooperation and enhance friendship of the two peoples.